Bruce Gaarder
Highland Park Saint Paul MN
I read earlier posts that suggested that SW lrt should run down Nicollet.
Good way to kill all of the businesses on Eat Street. To run it at
street level would remove all on-street parking. Zoning rules would
undoubtedly require businesses to have parking lots for which there is no
space. Tunnelling would be so costly that even the give-money-away FTA
would choke. Check on the cost per mile of the L.A. Red Line subway.
Consider the effect on downtown Minneapolis traffic with a train passing
by every 3 3/4 minutes in each direction.
Sounds like very good arguments to consider PRT along these corridors.
Above the traffic, small footprint and narrow profile, capable of high
volume on-demand traffic. Of course it does require one thing that seems to
be lacking in a great many discussions on modes of transportation--VISION.
Everyone is stuck on the idea that you need a massive vehicle to carry
megapassengers per trip with many stops per trip to allow ingress and egress
of those passengers to be able to handle rush hour traffic.
All I can say is look at rush hour traffic and the fact that our freeways
are full of one and two passenger vehicles travelling bumper to bumper and
carrying more passengers than the busses and trains that run along side
them. The difference with bumper to bumper PRT cars there would be no
stopping at red lights or for train crossings or to allow busses to get
through. The ride would be non stop from station to station and available
on-demand for the passengers. The closest thing to automobiles without
automobiles. And automobiles seem to be the mode of travel that still beats
out LRT and BRT in terms of customer preference.
If you want people to use a system then build one that better resembles the
ease and flexibility that they now experience with their cars--PRT.
Steven M Nelson
Willard Hay
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